I now return to the narrative of the services of the 2nd Battalion, which we left at Hythe barracks; whence, after a rest of five months after the fatigues of Moore’s retreat, their losses being replaced by volunteers from the Militia, and their clothing and accoutrements renewed, they marched, about July 20, 1809,[69] about a thousand strong, under Colonel Wade, to Deal, and there embarked in the ‘Superb,’ 74, to join the expedition destined for Holland, under the Earl of Chatham. Subsequently they were shifted into the ‘Namur,’ on the 22nd, and formed part of the brigade of their former Lieutenant-Colonel, the Honourable William Stewart, with the 2nd Battalions of their constant companions in arms, the 43rd and 52nd. They sailed on July 30, and arrived off Flushing on the following day. Two companies were immediately detached to act with the force under Major-General Baron de Rottenberg; and on that night Lieutenant William Humbley, being in charge of an advanced picquet, while going his rounds, was informed by a peasant that a party of French soldiers were at that moment plundering his house. Humbley, with great promptness, suspecting that while intent on plunder the look-out would not be very good, at once took with him a corporal and eight men of his picquet; and, under the guidance of the peasant, the night being very dark, made his way to the house, about 200 yards from his post. They moved in perfect silence, and arrived at the place without a ‘_qui vive_’ from the only sentry there posted. Him a Rifleman knocked down at once with the butt of his rifle; the others instantly surrounded the house, and made prisoners the whole picquet, consisting of 2 sergeants, 2 corporals, and 20 privates. The officer in command of it alone escaping, by getting out of a back window, and in the darkness of the night getting away. The Riflemen broke the whole of the muskets of the French picquet, and conveyed their twenty-four prisoners into the British lines and forwarded them to head-quarters.[70] The two companies to which Humbley’s picquet belonged, on the next day repulsed a sortie made from the place; and in this affair Humbley received a severe wound in the head from a musket ball, and 1 sergeant and 9 rank and file were also wounded. During the subsequent siege, a Rifleman named Jackman got close up to the walls of Flushing, and scooping out a pit with his sword, entrenched himself in it, and began to fire deliberately at the French gunners. He is said to have picked off eleven artillerymen, as they showed themselves at the embrasures; and having done so, he sprang out of his pit, ran across the open, and rejoined his Battalion unhurt.[71]